4 business outcomes that prove the value of employee mental health investment

Moving past ROI and into the VOI of employee mental health starts with setting a baseline and considering a company's current employee wellbeing goals. The questions seem easy enough to answer:

What is your desired vision of a mental health solution?
What critical business challenges in your organization can a mental health platform solve?

Regardless of how you answered those two questions, employers all share a common denominator: A wise investment in a mental health solution will reveal itself in four business areas that are critical to any organization and have measurable outcomes.

Company culture. One major long-term study found that companies with the best corporate cultures — companies that encouraged all-around leadership initiatives and highly appreciated their employees, customers, and owners — grew 682% in revenue. During the same 11-year period, companies without a thriving company culture grew only 166% in revenue.A mental health culture fosters appreciation and connection. The opposite is also true. When you foster appreciation and connection as part of the employee experience — especially when that occurs in the context of an employee mental health platform that provides a way for every employee to take care of their mental health — you move a step closer to embodying a mental health culture.
Company reputation. This is quite simply the way the world — including your employees — perceives your mission, vision, and values. What isn't as clear is how you choose to deliver the value of your company brand. Employers that take a consistent, proactive approach to mental health and build their support of mental health into the total employee experience will benefit from a stronger employer brand and a greater company reputation. You'll increase engagement and be more attractive to job-seekers.
Employee performance. Take a step back from the traditional, ROI-based tactics of performance assessment and talent management technology. Focus instead on another path to improving employee performance. How would employee performance improve if every employee were equipped with the tools to manage their individual, personal challenges? To be supported in life in general? To be able to make incremental changes in their well-being and ability to do their jobs?Maybe that sounds like just another spin on "bring your whole self to work." But it's more than that. It's improving performance by ensuring employees have the most impact in the least amount of time. An employee is more productive when they're focused, healthy, and on their game for three hours than if they're stressed or not well and stringing out the same amount of work over several more hours.
Enhanced existing well-being spend. The most expensive piece of employee health care is spent on reactive solutions (e.g., traditional core benefits focused on treatment) and programs that employees aren't taking full advantage of (like the EAP). It's far more costly to treat a problem than it is to prevent it.

An optimal mental health platform will emphasize the message that employees don't come to work alone, but as part of a wider ecosystem, provide self-assessments and knowledge, and guide employees to the appropriate resources and programs their employer is already paying for.

Instant Insights /

Deliver what matters: The value on investment of employee mental health programs

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